Posted on 10/12/2020 1:27:53 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Same here. My dad was an officer in a coin-collecting club, and I helped him in cataloging his collection (which all went to my youngest sister, darn). Anyway, I have a large number of the JFK halves from that period. Also still have uncirculated 1964 sets that I bought from the mint at that time. I still find silver coins in my change from time to time, and even find silver nickels (WWII mintage) - two in the last year. I miss using silver dollars in casino slot machines, wish I kept more than dumping them in the machines (which are all paper script driven now). But I kept the really old ones (Morgan, Peace). New coins are so worthless.
It’s worth noting that as soon as the silver went out of the coins, the value went out of the mint uncirculated and proof sets. For some of the 1971-1980s period, last I checked, could be had for scarcely more (if not less) than the original purchase price. I bought some as a kid, and they’re worth less today (at least inflation-wise). I think I bought one from 1974 or so for like $15 (this in 1981, I believe) from a coin shop (and the guy gave me a “deal” because the penny was oxidizing). Of course, $15 in today’s money is about $43 and the same set (with a non-oxidizing penny) can be had for $6 on eBay.
I haven’t gotten change in quite some time, so I rarely see coins. Only a very infrequent occasion do I spot a silver. The color alone is the giveaway. While the “fake” coloring post-1964 tried to get a close approximation, a good eye can spot the real deal. My mother was at the supermarket where they have to deposit a quarter rental for a cart and she brought the quarter back and set it down in her car and from a distance, without seeing the date (it was tails-up), I snatched it up, because I knew that real silver color. Even just a “fine” condition 1963 quarter is worth 30-40 times its face value now. Shows how worthless our coinage is today and the ghastly level of inflation.
Apparently folks in the Western states were more interested in using silver dollars even into the 1960s and their Senators (MT’s Mike Mansfield for one) tried to get them relaunched (remember the ill-fated attempt to put out a 1964 Peace Dollar ?). But when it appeared the general public and coin dealers were going to hoard the silvers (and the latter was going to charge something like $7.50 for each), they dropped the plan and melted down all those that had been made.
In these Covid times, we tell the cashier to keep the coin change or dump it in the tip jar. We used to bring home coins and dump them into jars. And get rolls from the bank. In the last couple years banks stopped giving out rolls, always saying they have none. Wife has lots of large jars of coins, way too many to inventory. Want to buy some recent yellow dollar coins (the ones the size of a quarter)? Wife has many rolls of those, worthless other than face value. I no longer have the patience to scan through thousands of coins, eyesight is failing.
Anyway, congrats on collecting and sharing info!
I don’t collect coins much at the moment. I don’t have as good a feel for the value/price as I used to. I switched to collecting political autographs in the mid ‘90s. I might get back into coins at some point, perhaps even collecting mineral samples (which I did a modest amount of in the ‘80s as well), though I’m not well-versed on value/price of those, either. Political autographs I’m more well-versed on.
Thanks for the offer on the Sacagawea Dollars, but I’ll decline. I’m not really crazy about those, either. The model for the coin is far too modern for my liking. I wish they’d take the politicians off ALL of our coinage and return to earlier incarnations. It makes it look like we worship politicians. Go back to Indian Head or Flying Eagle for the pennies, the Buffalo Nickel, Mercury Dime, Standing Liberty Quarter, Capped Bust Half-Dollar (since the Walking Liberty is on the Silver Coin) and a return of the Peace, Morgan and Trade Dollar designs on a restored full-sized dollar coin. I did a post on that with pics awhile ago.
At the very least, get the sex addicted JFK off the half-dollar. Poor Ben Franklin got only 15 years on his coin, and he was one of our premier Founding Fathers, while JFK is now in his 57th(!) year !? If getting shot while President gets you on a coin, why haven’t Presidents Garfield and McKinley gotten theirs ? They both were better Presidents than JFK. Just imagine if the jug-eared jackass Zero had been shot. They’d have put his execrable grinning mug on the quarter to displace Washington.
Actually presidential dollars. Similar in size to the Sacagawea coins, also yellow, but representing each of our presidents starting with Washington. Wife was trying to collect rolls of each, but never completed the set. Yellow coins with edge lettering. She was also trying to find mint mistakes, some were minted without the edge lettering. If Zero were put on a coin, it ought to be the penny. Brown and worthless.
Oh, I’m sorry, I misunderstood which dollar coins you were referring to. I might get those at some point, but I’d tend to prefer the individual coins as opposed to entire rolls.
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